Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Match Report: 07/18: vs Hurricanes

Coming after a long break, the second round of the league, Immortals were yearning to start off on a winning note. With new personalized t-shirts in the camp, the equation was much more simpler now, to win a minimum of 2 games out of 3 to play in the Platinum Cup. If not, then just like previous regular season, we end up playing the Gold Cup.

The practice session a day before the actual game was much more rigourous as all looked forward to shaking off the rusty legs. Batting, bowling, fielding and catching sessions were good enough to get everyone back into the rhythm. The game was against Hurricanes with a 10-1 record in the previous round. Everyone knew what was at stake and how the performances on the field would matter in this crucial game against a good healthy opponent. The ground once again was a 360 format.

Winning the toss, our captain Darshil rightly selected to bat first, and with some top order mix-up and some middle order determined batting display, the Immortals managed to finish their innnings for a healthy 78 for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs. The highlights being Jainip's middle order 21 and the captain's own 23 ball 18 down the order.

Hurricanes batsmen were off to a flyer as both their openers were looking rock solid as they managed to wipe off 40 odd runs just under 10 overs at the break. With the first strike from Darshil and another one from Keka (Karan) things were looking a bit more bright as Immortals were willing to give their all to take this down the wire. Even as Bhupesh managed to strike later in the innings, some misfields, sloppiness in judgement calls, dropped catches (4 of them) and batsman friendly full-tosses helped the Hurricanes to scurry back home with a win off just 18 overs. Ironically, the boundaries scored were off all the full-toss balls, with 6 fours and 1 six. A batsman (Prasad) who lived almost like 3-4 lives due to dropped catches managed to set the tone for the win with healthy contributions from the top order for the Hurricanes.

Now its a do or die situation for the Immortals as they have to have to win the next two games in order to stay alive for the Platinums. Immortals have to get their game back into action and re-group to bounce back with firm determination and confidence.